Sweet and satisfying, it doesn’t contain:
- Eggs
- Butter – nor other saturated fats
- Refined sugars
- Gluten
Its name is Castagnaccio; it is made with the flour of dry chestnuts. It is one of uncountable delicacies of the blessed soil of Italy.
The chestnuts are one of the warm tastes of the Tuscan autumn.
One of the excellence zones for chestnuts is the Garfagnana, in the north western part of Tuscany.
The chestnuts trees grow on the mountains of Garfagnana. The fruits are dried and smoked in small stone, two story houses in the middle of the wood. The spiny casks are placed at the superior floor, while the embers at the ground floor slowly dry the chestnuts with the arising smoke.
The Garfagnana is famous – also – for the many dishes made with chestnuts and chestnuts flour. Delicious are the soups that combine them with mushrooms.
CASTAGNACCIO
Ingredients:
300 gr (10 oz) chestnut flour
1 + cup water
1 handful pine nuts or/and walnuts
1 handful raisins
½ grated orange zest
fennel seed or/and rosemary leaves
salt
2 spoons olive oil
Soak the raisins in warm water. Sift the chestnut flour in a bowl; add a pinch of salt, mixing until a smooth and fluid batter is done.
Add raisins, nuts, fennel seeds, grated zest.
Grease a baking pan with the olive oil, pour out the batter.
If liked, spread the rosemary leaves on top and garnish the surface with pine nuts. Drizzle the left olive oil.
Bake at 200° for about 40 minutes or until a dark crispy crust has formed.
It is good by itself, but it is superb served with fresh Ricotta.